Let the Good Times Roll

While we were in the city yesterday we took Kylee to what turned out to be her favorite place ever, Chuck-E-Cheese. They have a play area just for toddlers. It has a pretty neat climber with slide, a couple video games, and several tot sized rides. Kylee's favorite was Clifford. She rode it over and over. Every time it stopped she shouted "All done!" and clapped. Then she immediately asked for more. Each time it would start again, she literally squealed in delight.

Kylee loved the music and danced the entire time we were there, even while eating her pizza. I wasn't sure if she would love the giant, singing puppets or be terrified of them. She loved them! When she spotted Chuck she ran to the stage and stared at him for a minute in awe. Then she climbed up on stage with him, danced around, and tried to shake his hand!

She's too young to get the concept of video games, but enjoyed pushing the buttons and LOVED putting the "pennies" in the machines. She also loved all the people there and made sure she said "hi" to everyone she saw. The employees apparently loved her too. Daddy won her 473 tickets, but the machine counter broke, and our ticket receipt just said 1. So, one of the employees hand wrote us a receipt and bumped the total up to 600 tickets! We took the receipt the prize counter and let her pick out some toys. Although the receipt said 600, the girl working the counter gave her 910 tickets worth of goodies "just because she's so cute!"

Since we only made it through the back half of the zoo Tuesday, we also took Kylee on a quick trip back to zoo. The main plan was to go to the Explorekeet Adventure so that she could feed the parrots up close (the parrots were her favorite at The Little River Zoo). Unfortunately, Explorekeet is being moved to the children's zoo and is closed until 2010. Boo! We were very disappointed but still had fun. Kylee's favorite this time around was the Meerkats. She kept trying to get daddy to put her in the pen with them.

I'll try to upload the rest of the Chuck-E-Cheese pictures and pics from both zoo trips the photo album sometime this week.

Wildlife Refuge

Yesterday was a great day! Auntie Vickie took us out to the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. Our new playgroup friends, Alycia and Carrie, came along too. First we went to the visitors center. It's not very big, but it has quite a bit for kids to touch and explore. Kylee and Carrie seemed to really enjoy it. Two of the building walls are made of glass, and there was a herd of bison just a few yards away. Kylee was so excited to see the "buffalo" (more excited than she was to see any of the animals at the zoo).

After that we stopped at Meers, and Vickie bought us all lunch. We got the food to go and took it to a scenic spot near Sunset for a picnic. The weather was perfect! Kylee didn't eat much of her lunch (the least healthy lunch she's ever had) before a butterfly flew by and caught her attention. From then on, she was too busy bug hunting to eat. She had so much fun exploring and was absolutely ecstatic about all the bugs, rocks, and sticks she found. She also found her perfect climbing tree. She was in heaven!!

Kylee and Carrie both fell asleep on the way back (woohoo!), and Kylee ended up taking a pretty good nap. When she woke up, she kept asking for Aunt. So, grandma and Aunt Michelle picked us up and took us to Branding Iron with them. Yum!

Zoo Pics!

Very impressed by the giant tortoise

Big bear!


Giving the bear a kiss

Kylee thought the catfish was super cool.

Reminds me of Mighty Joe Young

Kylee and her gorilla admirer

trying to pet the gorilla

watching an orangutan hang from the ceiling

unearthing dinosaur tracks with Auntie Vickie

Oklahoma City

Today Kylee, grandma, and I took a trip to OKC to pick up Auntie Vickie from the airport. I was so nervous about the car ride, but thanks to her Wheels on the Bus cd and a Wiggles dvd, Kylee did an amazing job both there and back! She actually wanted to stay IN the car!
Kylee thought the airport was super fun, especially the escalators. She exclaimed "weee" each time we went up or down and constantly asked for "more" rides. In fact, I think the escalators were the highlight of the whole trip.
After the airport we took Vickie to get her dress fitted for Song's wedding this weekend. Then we stopped to eat at Golden Corral and headed to the zoo. By the time we got to the zoo, it was almost Kylee's usual nap time, and she was starting to get tired. She had fun, but I think she would have had an even better time had she not been so exhausted.
Kylee said "hi" to every animal she saw and blew kisses to some of her favorites. She really liked the gorillas and orangutans, and one of the gorillas seemed to really like her too. In fact, I think it was more interested in her than she was in it. She also liked the giant turtles (she wanted to hold one.) and T-rex (animitronic). I expected her to be a little more excited about the bears and lions than she was. She liked them, but her favorites were the buffalo and the sand box. So, instead of going back to the zoo with the playgroup tomorrow, we are going to go out to the Wichita Wildlife Refuge in the morning and hopefully (finally) put up the sandbox tomorrow afternoon.
I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.

Gooey girls

Kylee and Charli seem to have caught the play group cold. Their poor little noses were pretty gooey last night, but despite the goo, they still had the giggles.

Having Fun with the Martin Crew

Since we were stranded at home yesterday, Ethan and his parents picked us up and took us to one of our favorite hangouts, Nations of Fun (where else?). Madison and her parents were there too. It was definitely more crowded than we like, but the kids had fun. Kylee's favorite thing is Dance, Dance Revolution (It plays music even if you don't put quarters in). Here are the kids breaking it down on the dance pad:

Kylee's 1st Easter Egg Hunt

This morning Kylee and I went to her first Easter egg hunt (our playgroup's Easter party). Kylee usually clings to me (or at least to my finger) when go to group playdates. She walks around and plays, but she takes me with her every step of the way. Today, however, she had so much fun that she didn't need my finger. As soon as the eggs were put out, she went after them all on her own. She didn't exactly "gather" eggs, but she definitely hunted them (and bugs....of course). Instead of putting the eggs in the basket, she ditched the basket and ran to eggs, opening each one as soon as she picked it up. There were about 6 kids there, and most of them were under 2. So, we hid the eggs in pretty obvious spots (most them just scattered on the ground). It was perfect for her first egg hunt! We both had such a great time, and since she didn't have hold of my finger the whole time, I was able get some decent pictures.

There are more pictures from this morning on our online album (click the link on the right).